Chemist Martin Fleischmann, Responsible for Cold Fusion Experiment, Passes Away at Age 85

One-half of the duo responsible for discovering cold fusion has passed away in his home in Salisbury, England, on Aug. 3.

Martin Fleischmann has been battling health problems that included diabetes, heart disease, and Parkinson's.

Fleischmann gained fame when he shocked the scientific community with Dr. Stanley Pons when they demonstrated a tabletop cold fusion experiment in March 1989. The experiment was considered as historic as conducting such a test never took place, due to the hazards and implications of the atoms.

According to the Guardian Express, they had created a sustained nuclear fusion reaction. The reaction involves the process that powers the sun, at room temperature using a table-top, using a test tube device running a few volts of deuterium-enriched water into a metal called palladium.

Fleischmann's experiment would be criticized after other scientists failed to succeed in their attempts in cold fusion. Among the scientists trying to replicate the experiment was the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is credited for the groundwork of the atom bomb.

The experiment attracted Utah lawmakers to donate $5 million into cold fusion, and the National Cold Fusion Institute was established. The institute would encounter problems as its first director resigned from its board of trustees after a financial scandal erupted. In 1993, the University of Utah would secure the cold fusion patents, but spending more than $1 million in attorney fees in licensing those patents to a private energy company. The private company would eventually abandon its cold fusion efforts due to costs.

"People will say cold fusion has never been replicated, but there's been 17,000 replications worldwide since Pons and Fleischmann," said Chief Executive Officer of Pure Energy News, Sterling Allan.

Fleischmann's story is more unique as he fled from Czechoslovakia in 1938 after Nazi occupation began. His family moved to England where a British man would adopt him in order to gain legal status.